I do think part of the problem is that parents, especially new ones, are concerned that there kids might not eat ENOUGH. There’s so much emphasis on this very early in a child’s development, that I think it has a profound effect on making parents a bit paranoid about their child eating. So if the child decided they don’t want to eat the healthier stuff, I’m betting a lot of parents just think “oh well, I tried” and then go on to give them whatever it is they WILL eat just to get the calories in. Of course, kids will survive quite well without eating much or anything for a meal or two or three, and then they will be a lot more likely to eat anything, healthy or not, once that real hunger kicks in!

Hi Levi–

Having reared three and now working on three grandchildren I know whereof you speak.  It’s difficult, especially when giving in is so easy.  It’s like the TV.  It’s so easy to just plop them in front of the TV to keep them happy.  At least now there are videos available that feed their brains as they watch.

It would be better, I’m sure, if kids never had any of the sugary high-carby crap that all kids love, but as a practical matter, you can’t totally keep them from it.  So, controlling it is way better than most unenlightened parents do.  The one thing a always encourage people NOT to do, is to not use sweets as a reward.  If you do, the kids end up associating sweets with something wonderful, and, in my opinion, it makes it much more difficult for them to deal with their sweet addiction later on because of all the psychological implications.

Best–

MRE 

I am also, sadly, addicted to reading blogs and message boards.

On many of the message boards people ask how they can get their kids to eat “healthy”. The suggestions, hiding veggies in other foods, don’t teach the child anything. But, what burns me more than anything are the suggestions to give the kids veggies with salsa instead of dressing (less fat) and giving them “healthy snacks” like pretzels, pudding with cool whip, etc. Even when they mention real fruit, it’s always got a “dipper” of something loaded with sugar.

Almost all the advice is to cut the fat, increase the “healthy” carbs. Let me tell you, I’ve been lambasted so many times for trying to point out that cool whip, pretzels, etc are not good food!

I fear that the public is so brainwashed against fat!!! And they are so brainwashed to believe the “health benefits” of fiber….so what is a good fiber content? 3g per serving!!! No mention of checking the rest of the catbs, oh no….those are fine!

Eh….it makes me sick!

On a good note, the article about Dr Vernon (The Cure For Diabetes) did make it to MSN!!!

Thanks for all your posts Dr Mike….I enjoy reading them, and learn something almost every time!

Hi Cindy–

Thanks for the kind words.  As to the nutritional changes we need so sorely…they will come, but I fear it will take a lot of time and a lot of disease before it happens.

Best–

MRE 

One poster in the discussion made two grocery lists – one low-carb, one for cheaper ‘regular’ fare. The low-carb list worked out to be $80 more, even with shopping from the deals/specials flyer. For a family on a budget, that makes a huge difference.

Rather than study whether people with kids are fatter than people without (what a stupid waste of money), maybe this link should be studied a little more closely. Course, they’d likely focus on the fat in the pizza pops and cheap cookies. Crazy.

Hi Tracy–

There is no question that a low-carb diet is more expensive than a high-carb diet.  Using cheaper cuts of meat and even cheaper meat (chicken, for instance) can make it less expensive, but it will still cost more than a bunch of high-carb junk.  A Mercedes costs more than a Ford Pinto.

It’s a classic case of pay now or pay later.  And when we later, we pay not only dollars, but in less enjoyment of life as well.

One of the ways I like to look at is to see how much protein your paying for.  Protein is really the only essential macronutrient, and we all need plenty of good quality protein.   So, look at the number of grams of protein in some kind of junk food, divide those grams into the price of the food to get the price per gram of protein.  Then compare it to something like ground beef, and you’ll discover that the ground beef is a real bargain.

Cheers–

MRE 

This is a brilliant post. As I read, I had the same thought . . . what about the carbs? You answered that.

Anecdotal evidence isn’t very scientific, I realize, but I’ve often thought that a successful diet could be extrapolated from what ISN’T on the plate of the obese people at the buffets. Repeatedly, they have plates filled with breads, other starchy items, and what protein they do eat is breaded and fried. Color, or lack thereof, is even a predictor!

Keep up the great work. I read the blog every day.

Richard

Hi Richard–

Thanks for the kind words.

I, too, enjoy looking at plates in the all-you-can-eat buffet lines.  I try to look at the plates without looking at the person putting on the food to see if I can determine that person’s state of obesity by simply looking at his (or her) food choices.  After having done it for years, I can tell you that there is a high correlation between sugary, starchy, breaded foods and obesity.

Cheers–

MRE 

I have just read your book from 1889 “Thin so fast” in swedish. You were there early where some of us are now. I´m waiting for your newest book in swedish.
The obese epidemic is coming to Sweden some years after the US, but it is recongnized as a problem here as well. Diabetes (type 2) is increasing. The authorities say: More fibres less fat and the problems grows worse.
I’m surprised to see so many young people in bars and cafés that are (still) slim. But I know that their drinking sweet drinks and sweet bred and cookies will get to them later on.
But no-one will give them a warning.
It’s so sad.
It makes me sad to to see that photo with the children on top of this post. But it’s a very good illustration to the situation.
When will the authorities wake up?

Hi Arne–

Thanks for writing.  The first book I ever had translated was when Thin So Fast, my first book, got translated into Swedish, so your comment brings back fond memories.

I don’t have any control over what languages the books get translated into.  Foreign publishers buy the rights from our US publisher, then translate the books into their language.  Protein Power has been published in Spanish, French, Portuguese, Hebrew, and Chinese.   Maybe you could encourage a Swedish publisher to buy the Swedish rights and translate.

Better yet, read it in English.  Your English is very good.  You shouldn’t have a problem.

Sorry to hear that Sweden has caught the obesity disease. 

Cheers–

MRE 

And kids have an amazing preference for the junk versions of food over the real thing. Once they know what the manufactured versions of food are like, they don’t want homemade versions of the same. “Mom, your vegetable soup doesn’t taste like my alphabet soup. Why doesn’t your homemade bread taste like the stuff from the store? I don’t want to go that restaurant, I want McDonald’s. Your mashed potatoes have lumps in them, the KFC ones taste better.”

I face this problem now whenever my grandchildren visit a few times a year from out of state. My daughter doesn’t cook, so just about everything her children eat comes out of a box, wrapper, or can, or from a restaurant, including fast foods ones, so what do I feed the children when they come to visit me and they think pizza rolls and pop tarts are what one eats for dinner and that canned chicken noodle soup or ramen noodles are the only kind of soups there are? The best I can do is to shop for the few vegetables, fruits, meats and nuts they will eat and make it clear there are no sweets or snack foods in my home to beg for as alternatives.

I watch my daughter and son-in-law introducing their little boy who is nearly two to food, and they feed him what he likes, not what he ought to have. French fries, instant mashed potatoes, crackers, pudding, sweetened yoghurt–standard toddler fare.

I can’t break my grandchildren’s starch addiction in the brief times I have with them, but maybe when they grow up I will be there to tell them there’s another way to eat that will make them feel a whole lot better and prevent or reverse the diseases that are heading their way. When I was growing up, I ate like they do, and have been able to change my ways (thanks first to Dr. Atkins and now you) in the last few years. Keep putting the message out there–some of us are listening and healthier as a result!

Hi Ethyl–

Thanks for the great comment. 

I feel for you.  Fortunately, our daughter-in-law has taken our advice and prepares great meals for our grandsons.  When the first one was an infant and was to start on baby food there was no place to get organic baby food so she made her own.  She would cook turkey breast or some other kind of meat and puree it in a food processor.  Same with green beans, carrots, squash and other non-starchy veggies.  He had NO cereal.  And he’s fine.

I see so many parents that do exactly what your daughter is doing.  I’m hoping the kids come through it okay, but I have my doubts. 

Keep after it.

Best–

MRE 

Hi hap–

I don’t think parents should push hard for their children to be skinny.  If parents control the food at home, provide wholesome non-junk food meals, and ration treats, most kids will be normal weight.  It’s when the kids have a full time diet of junk food–and, sadly, all too many do–that they get fat.

When our kids were living at home, we ate good food and had very little junk.  Unbelievable as this may sound, some parents packed goody bags for their kids when they came to our house to hang out with our kids because their kids whined that we didn’t ave anything they liked to eat at our house.

I know our kids ate junk food when they got cars and got mobile, but we didn’t have it in the house.

Cheers–

MRE 

Consuming 4.9 g more fat on a daily basis would amount to a whopping 44.1 extra calories per day. IF you did that every day of the year, and IF you didn’t manage to run that many calories off chasing after the little darlings, it would still only amount to a 4-1/2 lb weight gain in the course of a year.

Since most of the fat would have been connected to starches and sugars (cake, cookies, fries, mac’n'cheese, buns on the hot dogs and burgers, etc), I can only imagine how many additional carbs they would have consumed on a daily basis – 150 g? 200? More?

Oh yeah, I completely forgot – it’s not the hundreds of grams of carbs in your diet that make you fat, it’s the measly 44.1 calories of extra fat you consumed! How could we be so blind?!

Hi Calianna–

They’ll be blind until the scales finally fall from their eyes.  Who knows how long that will take. 

Cheers–

MRE 

Hi Scott–

“extolled the virtues of Angel Food Cake because it is fat-free.”  Unbelievable, but, all too sadly, true.

I once saw a Q&A in one of those papers where a person writing in asked what she could do to make a meal she was preparing for her bridge club more healthful.  She described the menu, which was sliced flank steak on a bed of spinach with some grilled asparagus and tomatoes.  The dolt who wrote the column and gave the answer told the questioner that her meal calculated out to be 47% fat with the meat and the salad dressing she was using.  She told her to use low-fat or no-fat dressing and to ADD a potato and a dinner roll.  If she would make those changes that would get the fat content down to a healthful 30%.  Incredible!  Adding pure carb to get the fat percentage down will certainly make a meal more healthful, at least in the minds of idiots like that one.  And we wonder why obesity and diabetes are skyrocketing.

Cheers–

MRE